Two people arrested for alleged perjury relating to the civil case taken by Nikita Hand against former MMA fighter Conor McGregor have been released without charge. The suspects, a man and woman, were arrested in Dublin on Thursday.<\/p>\n
After being questioned by detectives they have since been released. The investigation into the allegations against them is set to continue with a view to determining if they have a criminal case to answer. The inquiry is being led by the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation<\/a> (NBCI), the Garda\u2019s serious crimes squad.<\/p>\n \u201cThe male and female, aged in their 30s, who were arrested in connection with this investigation have been released without charge,\u201d Garda Headquarters said in reply to queries. \u201cA file will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Investigations are ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n Criminal investigations into alleged perjury are very rare in the Republic as the allegation is seldom reported to An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na for investigation. The offence, of knowingly and deliberately giving false or misleading evidence under oath, is very hard to prove.<\/p>\n The investigation relating to the Hand-McGregor case commenced because a court directed aspects of the case be sent to the DPP for consideration. That was followed by the DPP directing the Garda to conduct a criminal investigation.<\/p>\n Last year, Mr McGregor was ordered to pay Ms Hand almost \u20ac250,000 damages after a High Court jury found he had assaulted her in a Dublin hotel. In July, he lost his appeal against the jury finding in favour of Ms Hand, who sued him for alleged rape at the Beacon hotel on December 9th, 2018.<\/p>\n During his appeal, Mr McGregor attempted to introduce new evidence that his legal team said would call into question key aspects of Ms Hand\u2019s testimony, based on how she sustained serious injuries that night.<\/p>\n It included sworn statements by Samantha O\u2019Reilly and her partner Steven Cummins, who lived across the road from Ms Hand in Drimnagh, Dublin, for a time.<\/p>\n Ms O\u2019Reilly claimed that, from a room in her house, she heard and saw what appeared to be a physical altercation between Ms Hand and her then partner, Stephen Redmond, on the night of December 9th\/10th, 2018.<\/p>\n